Indian tourism stakeholders expressed disappointment at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)’s extension of the ban on international commercial passenger flights to and from India until September 30.
The ban was originally scheduled to lift on August 31, and the extension has dampened the spirits of tour operators who were hoping that the reboot would kickstart tourism recovery.
“We needed a forward-looking approach for the industry in these times of distress. We didn’t receive any support from the government and the least we expect is a chance for us to stand back on our feet,” said Ajay Prakash, CEO of Nomad Travels and president of the Travel Agents Federation of India.
“Other countries are opening up for tourism and we aren’t. The resumption of scheduled international flight operations would have created an impression among tourists that India is safe to travel.”
International flights were first suspended in India on March 23, 2020 following the outbreak of Covid-19. Since then, the aviation regulator has extended the ban several times. However, special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral air bubble arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.
“We were hoping that international flights would resume as the pandemic situation in India and many countries, mainly in Europe, has improved considerably, but this decision has again put brakes on our expectations,” said Sanjay Razdan, director of Razdan Holidays and joint secretary of the Indian Association of Tour Operators.
“Restarting regular international flights (at the beginning of September) would also have sent a positive signal to the international community and we could have expected people to start travelling from October 2021.”
The trade has also raised questions as to how the government’s recently announced free tourist visa scheme will help spur inbound demand, if the international flight ban were to remain in place.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier this year announced that once international travel resumes, the first five lakh (hundred thousand) tourist visas will be issued free of charge. The benefit that will be available only once per tourist will be applicable till March 31, 2022.
“What’s the point of issuing free visas if we don’t have flights (coming into the country)?” said Prakash. “Inbound travel will now require a lot of planning. A tourist has to be assured about his or her safety at every touchpoint in the course of travel. If we don’t resume international flights now, how is the industry supposed to be ready before the inbound peak season that begins from October?”
Razdan appealed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and DGCA to resume international flights soon, and said the country should at least allow entry to fully vaccinated travellers from destinations with high vaccination rates.
The Qantas Group has unveiled more details on preparations for restarting its international flights by the end of this year, with plans linked to the vaccine rollout in Australia and key overseas markets.
The plans are based on the projection that Australia will reach the National Cabinet’s ‘Phase C’ vaccination threshold of 80 per cent in December, which would trigger the gradual reopening of international borders.
As such, Qantas and Jetstar are now preparing for potential travel resumption with key markets like the UK, North America and parts of Asia which also have high and increasing levels of vaccination, making them highly likely to be classed as low-risk countries for vaccinated travellers to visit and return from under reduced quarantine requirements.
Flights to destinations that still have low vaccination rates and high levels of Covid infection will now be pushed out from December 2021 until April 2022 – including Bali, Jakarta, Manila, Bangkok, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City and Johannesburg.
Assuming current projections hold and the 80 per cent vaccine threshold is met in December, Qantas and Jetstar plan to trigger a gradual restart.
From mid-December, flights would start from Australia to low-risk destinations, which are likely to include Singapore, the US, Japan, the UK, and Canada using Boeing 787s and Airbus A330s. Services to Fiji will be operated using Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s.
Flights between Australia and New Zealand will be on sale for travel from mid-December, on the assumption some or all parts of the two-way bubble restart.
Qantas’ ability to fly non-stop between Australia and London is expected to be in even higher demand post-Covid. The airline is investigating using Darwin as a transit point as an alternative (or in addition) to its existing Perth hub given conservative border policies in Western Australia.
Five A380s will return to service ahead of schedule. These would fly between Sydney and LA from July 2022, and between Sydney and London (via Singapore) from November 2022.
Qantas will extend the range of its A330-200 aircraft to operate some trans-Pacific routes such as Brisbane-Los Angeles and Brisbane-San Francisco.
Flights to Hong Kong will restart in February and the rest of the Qantas and Jetstar international network is planned to open up from April 2022, with capacity increasing gradually.